Archive for Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Howard Merken, Ph.D.: Film recollection
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Film recollection
With "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" playing in theaters and "Defiance" on the horizon, I'd like to mention a man with a background that reminds me of both movies. His name is Henry Barbanel, and he used to work with my father in the chemical industry. I know him and went to school with one of his sons.
He and his brother broke out of a concentration camp and organized a small resistance group that grew to 150 and became a part of the Polish underground. He came to the U.S. in 1949 and through hard work became a successful industrialist.
If you can access the American Paint and Coatings Journal, read about him in the Oct. 30, 1989, issue. The article, by my late father Henry Merken and his secretary, Darlene Fortune, is "Sanncor's Barbanel came up the hard way." This brief writing not only highlights the instinct for survival when they're literally out to kill you, but also the American dream - coming to America penniless and making a life for oneself. This in itself is a good lesson for us in these economic hard times. For those who can't access this article very easily, I have a copy that I might be able to show you if you e-mail me at hmerken@yahoo.com.
Howard Merken, Ph.D.
Steamboat Springs
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